The Hindu Business Line : Faith in women demands that you trust them without reservation

THESE are days when almost half the news is reserved for reservation, be it about quota in private colleges, or of seats of power for women. While on the former the Judiciary and the Legislature are locked in heated debate, the latter is developing into a Dutch auction of sorts.

If symbolic gestures can please women, we may find men get away with a single-digit percentage as reservation for women rather than `33' that has long been dangled as a teaser. Reservation is nothing new, though the idea crops up in newer places.

Even as political parties come to terms with women's reservation, let's get to know the word.

Reservation is the action of reserving, and to reserve is to retain for future use, or arrange for a seat to be kept for the use of a particular person, defines Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Reservation is `advance booking,' according to Encarta.

For example, when Macbeth remarks, "The table's full," Lennox responds, "Here is a place reserved, sir."

Indian Railways' online passenger reservation site www.indianrail.gov.in springs up as the first find for reservation on Google, and Venere.com follows it, promising `accommodation reservations throughout the world'. Reservation also means "a tract of public land set aside (as for use by American Indians)," as Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines.

"What is a `real Indian?'" asks James Falcon on www.americanchronicle.com. "Stereotypes dictate that a `real' Indian lives in a teepee on an Indian Reservation and has a name like Albert Roaring Thunder of John Eagle Feather. False." Another, again from the day's news, is from www.signonsandiego.com, that Jamul tribal leaders intend to build a 30-story hotel-casino on the only land they have: their six-acre reservation.

Tracing the origin of the US policy of creating reservations for Native Americans, www.nationmaster.com informs that it was during the Presidential administration of Ulysses S. Grant in the late 1860s that the Government decided to handle the perceived `Indian problem' of growing conflicts between the US settlers and the Native American tribes, especially because "the settlers encroached on hunting grounds and natural resources".

Leaving aside that festering problem of Uncle Sam, if you were to trace the origin of the word, Online Etymology Dictionary helps without any reservation: "Reservation: c.1380, `act of reserving,' from M.Fr. reservation, from L.L. reservationem (nom. reservatio), from L. reservatus, pp. of reservare (see reserve). US Indian tribe sense is recorded from 1789, originally in ref. to the Six Nations in New York State. Meaning `act or fact of engaging a room, a seat, etc.' is from 1904, originally Amer. Eng."

See `reserve' to find the word is from 1340, from O.Fr. reserver, from L. reservare `keep back, save back,' from re- `back' + servare `to keep, save, preserve, protect'. Observe, preserve and conserve are some of the words from the same servare root. "The noun meaning `something stored up' is from 1658. Reserved (in manner) first recorded 1601 in Shakespeare (`All's Well' v.3)," adds www.etymonline.com.

"All her deserving is a reserved honesty," is that citation. Elsewhere in All's Well That Ends Well, Parolles says, "I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make some reservation of your wrongs."

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction, and one cannot love a reserved person, Frank Churchill opines. Never reveal all of yourself to other people; hold back something in reserve so that people are never quite sure if they really know you, advises Michael Korda. But J. B. Priestley may not agree: "Many a man is praised for his reserve and so-called shyness when he is simply too proud to risk making a fool of himself."

Reservation means "a doubt or feeling of not being able to agree with or accept something completely," explains Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary and provides the example, "He accepted my advice without reservation." Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error, says Andrew Jackson. Reservation can refer to the act of withholding something, or an instance of so doing, states http://encarta.msn.com.

The word also means a limiting condition to an agreement; a clause in a deed by which somebody retains an interest in something being granted or leased, or such an interest itself; and, in Christianity, "the practice of retaining part of the consecrated bread and wine after celebrating Communion for later use, e.g. when visiting the sick."

`Central reservation' is "the narrow piece of land between the two halves of a large road," a.k.a. median.

Reservation of title in a sale of goods is where the seller retains title to the goods sold until the buyer pays for the goods, defines Oxford Dictionary of Business. Reserve, as accountants know, is accumulation of retained profit, and the difference between reserve and provision is a favourite for paper-setters. Reserve assets, Reserve Bank, reserve capital, reserve currency, reserve price, reserve tranche and so on are also defined in the dictionary. Reserve is "an accounting entry that properly reflects contingent liabilities," in a glossary on www.bloomberg.com.

However, reserve, according to the Dictionary of Automotive Terms Abbreviations, is "the amount left in the fuel tank".

Hamlet would say, "Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd but it reserved some quantity of choice." In Othello, the fuel for Emilia's dialogue is Desdemona's napkin, "That she reserves it evermore about her to kiss and talk to." You can hear Cleopatra say, "I have reserved to myself nothing", and find Antipholus of Syracuse asking for out of season jests to be reserved for "a merrier hour".

Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme, the Bard would sing in a moving sonnet with `poor rude lines.'

Reserve can mean several things, states Wikipedia. "It can mean a place where species of flora (plants) and fauna (animals) can be protected and preserved from extinction. Examples include nature reserves and game reserves."

A judge may reserve a decision in a case, which means that he takes time to consider the judgment rather than delivering it straight after hearing the parties to the case, notes http://en.wikipedia.org.

In military jargon, reserve means "forces held back from battle in order to deal with unforeseen contingencies, or to exploit successes, or to relieve troops that have lost their effectiveness".

King Lear says, "Ourself, by monthly course, with reservation of an hundred knights, by you to be sustain'd, shall our abode make with you by due turns."

Elsewhere, you hear him say, "Made you my guardians, my depositaries; but kept a reservation to be follow'd with such a number."

Reserve is "a known resource that can be exploited for profit with available technology under existing political and economic conditions," according to Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms on www.webref.org. Reserve is "the quantity of mineral that is calculated to lie within given boundaries".

Related phrases are total (or gross), workable, or probable working reserves "depending on the application of certain arbitrary limits in respect of deposit thickness, depth, quality, geological conditions, and contemporary economic factors".

PetroKazakhstan has proven reserves of 535 million barrels and produces 150,000 barrels a day, one learns from a recent story on http://en1.chinabroadcast.cn about how China National Petroleum Corp CNPC beat a $3.6 billion bid from ONGC.

Reserve, as an energy term defined on www.energy.ca.gov, is "the extra generating capability that an electric utility needs, above and beyond the highest demand level it is required to supply to meet its users' needs."

Forestry Glossary of Terms on www.for.gov.bc.ca defines reserve as "an area of forest land that, by law or policy, is not available for harvesting". Reserve zone is "the inner portion of a riparian management area situated adjacent to a stream, lake, or wetland and established to conserve and maintain the productivity of aquatic and riparian ecosystems when harvesting is not permitted."

To wrap, here's a thought from D. Elton Trueblood — that faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation. If the Women's Bill has to become law, parties may need to display just that — trust without reservation.

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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